A Paladino Dance Party! (Updated)

I’m a little at a loss to explain this, as was the WNY political operative to forwarded it to me.

The invite was accompanied by a gentleman by the name of Al Belardinelli, who is affiliated with the (very fractured) Buffalo-area Tea Party movement. That divide and the animosity it has generated was on display in the email that accompanied this invite, in which Belardinelli wrote:

“Oh – there will plenty of tar and feathers in case Mike Caputo and his cohorts should show up – lol (don’t worry they won’t). ‘Another one bites the dust’ (Queen)…ok – we won’t throw rocks – we’ll just ‘Rock On’….!!!!!”

Caputo, as you’ll recall, was the manager of Paladino’s failed guberntorial campaign in 2010. The two had a number of falling outs, including one connected to the Buffalo businessman’s disastrous comments to a group of Orthodox Jews about gay marriage. (I believe Caputo offered to resign over that incident, but was rebuffed by his candidate boss).

Since then, Caputo has clashed with Paladino over the selection of Assemblywoman Jane Corwin over David Ballavia to run in the NY-26 special election.

(Paladino, Erie County Executive Chris Collins, Erie County GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy and their allies backed Corwin, who lost the GOP-held seat in an upset to Democratic Rep. Kathy Hochul. As it turns out, Langworthy and former Niagara County GOP Chairman Henry Wojtaszek, both big Corwin boosters, made money on that race).

Also, since Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who defeated Paladino last November, took office in January, Caputo has actively supported one of his signature policy proposals, the property tax cap, even going so far as to urge Tea Partiers to support it.

Caputo also urged support for Cuomo’s first budget deal, which caused another former Paladino campaign aide and WNY Tea Party activist, Rus Thompson, to accuse Caputo of going rogue and acting without Paladino’s permission.

For those of you who are missing your daily dose of Paladino, I saw a Tweet from him earlier today announcing he would be appearing on Fox Business News at 4 p.m.

UPDATE: Caputo emailed a lengthy response that appears after the jump.

“The ‘political operative’you write about is not associated with the Tea Party in Buffalo; Al Belardinelli runs a tiny splinter Tea Party group in Broome County,” Caputo wrote.

“We spent way too much time protecting Carl from the vortex of insanity that whirls around this character. By October, the entire campaign staff tossed his incessant telephone calls around like hot potatoes.”

“This is the first I’ve heard that Carl gave this guy $1,000. Why anyone would give Belardinelli even a returnable bottle is beyond me. Most legitimate Tea Party leaders across the state consider him deathly toxic because he has worked to destroy the grassroots unity that helped Carl win the Republican Primary.”

“Of course, some good folks still respond to his xenophobic prodding, so he’ll get a few out to cut up the rug. It will probably look a lot like this.”